Cat Doorman, the new children’s music and media project by acclaimed illustrator and Portland indie music scene veteran Julianna Bright, will release a first album for children, Cat Doorman Songbook.The new release features 14 songs – 12 original – whose lush compositions celebrate the uniqueness, potential and power of every child. Available on January 24 from Night & Day Studios, Cat Doorman Songbook’s release will coincide with Night & Day’s launch of the Little Red Wagon App, an interactive app for children based around Bright’s version of the classic tune and made from hundreds of her hand-painted illustrations.

Cat Doorman Songbook features Bright’s inviting vocals and percussion, along with contributions from Chris Funk (Decemberists), Annalisa Tornfelt (Black Prairie) and members of Golden Bears, Bright’s Portland based indie band that has toured with the Corin Tucker Band. The Cat Doorman CD package includes a 18-page booklet of hand-lettered lyrics and Bright’s colorful, quaintly charming illustrations.

Cat Doorman songs have an immediate, authentic sound with a musical complexity not often heard in music for kids. These songs would feel at home on any alternative radio playlist, with a well-crafted mix of soaring vocals and beautiful arrangements for strings, horn, guitar and piano. Fresh takes on familiar kid themes are evident in “Little Red Wagon,” and “Let’s Get Dressed Up.” A cover of Syd Barrett’s, “Effervescing Elephant” finds Bright in a delightful duet with an 8 year old. Rockers include the ABC song “So Many Words” and the funky “Yeah.” Amidst the catchy melodies are tracks that reach around the world to encompass the joys, loneliness and mysteries of childhood and life itself. An example is the song “Turn Around:” “Turn, turn around, take our hands and we’ll make a circle so large/The earth understands that our plans are hers,” or the waltzy-dreamy “Lonely Girl.”

Julianna Bright grew up in Southern California and studied English literature at UC Berkeley. A sensitive literary quality infuses her lyrics, and her artistry is evident in the Cat Doorman Songbook. Her vivid, delicate works in gouache, watercolor and ink have appeared on album covers, in periodicals and in galleries around North America. This is Bright’s first collaboration with Night & Day Studios, a pioneer in the children’s app world who’s original ‘Peek-a-boo” series of apps have sold millions and who’ve adapted the works of Eric Carle and Richard Scarry to acclaim. Bright and her partner and fellow Golden Bears member Seth Lorinczi are raising a five-year-old daughter in Portland.

The Cat Doorman band (including Bright, Seth Lorinczi, Chris Funk, John Moen, Garth Klippert, Annalisa Tornfelt, Jody Bleyle & Kate O’Brien-Clarke) recently performed at the popular You Who family concert series. Their CD release concert will be in Portland on January 26th at Mississippi Studios. The band plans a west coast concert tour following their CD release events in Portland in January. For more information, visit www.catdoorman.com and http://www.nightanddaystudios.com/.